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Summary: I Should Have Read the Other Reviews B4 Ordering..
Review: ...but I didn't. I ordered the book along with a Series 2 Tivo. Tivo should arrive later this week, but got the book early. When statements are made in the book saying things like "These hacks are known to work on the Series 1 but not Series 2...." and "Series 2 doesn't support this, for more information, go to this website....", I realize that I made a mistake in ordering this book.A co-worker has a Series 1 and may see if he wants it, because the book is useless to me other than to provide weblinks to where I can actually get useful information. Waste of $$$.
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Summary: NO GOOD W/MAC -- VERY TECHNICAL
Review: 1) I looked all over Amazon info & could find nothing about whether I could use a MAC to do this upgrade and finally in the middle of the book was cautioned against it. So withough easy access to a PC, I'm returning the book. I'm pretty computer savvy, but this upgrade sounds VERY technical. After searching around the web for a little bit it seems as if there are about 4 companies which sell Tivo Upgrade "kits" -- harddrives already formated, and ready to plug and play. While they cost about twice the price of the raw materials, I for one am happy to pay for the convenience and assurance. NOTE: I didn't try the upgrade, but I could just see it becoming a major nightmare. If you like to "get under the hood" -- are comfortable with Linex etc., have fun. And yes, some of the "backdoors" mentioned are interesting... but again, nothing you can't find via google.
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Summary: ** Caution: for non-super technical people BEWARE**
Review: First: the majority of the content is not compatible with the current TIVO system, series 2 *** I got SKUNKED!
Second: This book is really for someone with very strong technical skills, particularly a Unix background.
I am fairly technical with a Computer Science degree and would not attempt to do anything with this book and passed it to another fairly tech savvy friend and he gave it right back to me. There is a page or two that has cute shortcuts for the remote but you can get that info off a TIVO user group site. I regard this purchase as a total ripoff. I'll be happy to send you this book to you for $5 + shipping. email: funbeach6@yahoo.com
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Summary: To say I learned something is an amazing understatement
Review: From Jason Scott,... TiVo: You love it or you haven't met it. For those who have it (or are thinking of getting one), this book is out about all the different ways to modify, increase capacity, or even program TiVos. Whether you want to just add a little capacity to your TiVo's drives or turn it into a full-blown home entertainment center hooked into your home LAN, Jeff Keegan has written a massive and all-encompassing book on this rewarding art. As a relatively early convert to the TiVo way of life, I always found it hard to describe to people who didn't have one why their lives could be changed by it. If I was lucky, I could get friends to visit and with a few short minutes of demonstration, I'd sold another one. If they were farther away, I just hoped they would stop by some day and I'd have another convert. Why was I so intent on this? Because if you watch TV, or even if you don't watch as much as you used to, TiVo can change your life completely. It frees you from the tyranny of watching shows when you're told to watch them, and then goes on to turn your entire television experience from one bombarded with ads and missing all the "good stuff" on scattered random channels, to a true symbiotic relationship where you sit down in front of the tube and every single moment is one filled with shows you want to watch about stuff you're interested in. A lot of readers know what I'm talking about, because they have a TiVo or other PVR in their home right now. So when I tell you that this book will take your TiVo to the next level, I hope you get as excited as I was after reading the dozens of tricks, programs, and hacks this book lists. The opening chapter describes, in succinct but energetic fashion, why every person with a TV should have a TiVo. Keegan's description may fall towards the evangelical side of things, but he goes out of his way to explain why his feelings are so strong. In fact, this book has an interesting side-effect: converting those who don't own a TiVo. Just a quick browse through the first few chapters will have someone who's heard of TiVo but never used one chomping at the bit to get down to the store. To the TiVo army, this is a powerful munition indeed. From there, it's a powerful spiral into chapter after chapter of modifications, starting with back doors in the code and moving into opening the TiVo's case (explained with lots of clear pictures), adding storage, and even working with the TiVo's OS (a variation of Linux) to turn it into a web-accessible site or to improve performance. One inspiring chapter describes the author's experience at a baseball game, having his father go to get refreshments and missing some great plays, and the author pulling out his Palm Pilot with cellular modem to tell his TiVo over the web to record the game's highlights on the news. With that tantalizing trick presented, Keegan goes into the whole involved deal, everything from modifying the TiVo to creating the external server to feed the TiVo information. As I said, the tricks come fast and furious: TiVo as a way to browse photo galleries. TiVo pulling down the current weather and presenting the radar maps. TiVo printing Caller ID information on the screen when someone calls. By the time you're done with the book, you'll be wondering what there is that you can't do with it. And that, to me, is the sign of a truly great instructional book. A warning: If you want a neutral voice in the author, this isn't the book for you. Keegan's enthusiasm drips from many pages, written in the tone of the guy down the street with the new toy who simply has take you to the den and show you how cool it is, describing in greater and greater detail all the cool stuff he's discovered tinkering with it. The author's wife, newborn daughter, mother and father make appearances all throughout the book, including a particularly touching description of having his father design an assembly language program to manipulate an LED display. No, really, it's touching. I did a search for Jeff and information on him and I found a photo of him in his TiVo costume. Honestly, I'm speechless. The man has achieved what we call "full commitment." By about halfway through the book it stops being an instruction manual and begins being a full-on reference book, giving you explicit instructions on programming in Tcl, mucking about in Linux, and generally being a hard-core warranty violator. One appendix is dedicated to being a Tcl reference list while another hits you up for some basic Linux training (to be able to work comfortably in the OS). Keegan has also been kind enough to include a CD-ROM with pretty much all the programs and utilities needed to accomplish what's in his book. It's a telling personal trait that he apologizes for putting it all on a CD instead of enabling readers to go out and search for the programs themselves. To say I learned things in this book is an amazing understatement. Just to know that some of these things are even possible with my TiVo guarantee how I'll be spending the next few hundred dollars, buying larger drives, getting a cache card, and wiring the machine for ethernet. And Yes, it tells you how to get the shows off of your TiVo onto your computer's hard drive. When I ordered this book from Amazon, I found out it was an Amazon exclusive, so this the only place to get it right now. On the other hand, I was able to get my copy in a very short time, so I'm fine with that ... but I hope that you can get it in other places in the future. Regardless, it was worth the money I paid for it,...
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Summary: Another disappointed reader...
Review: Got this book as soon as it came out, and felt like a real schmuck when I realized that it was 99% for the old Series 1 TiVos. I assumed I had just not read the blurb carefully enough. But now I come back and see that about half the reviewers were as deceived as I was. I'm sending it back AND asking Amazon to pay the shipping costs...
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Summary: The nancer admind, above the heads, abover the rest.
Review: hey if want to hack into your tv, use this book it will show you have to download your hardrive and stuff and it's going to show you the thing, hey i remember a time, when tvio's where just reocrdirings of shows, now they play them back so therefore: YOU CAN ACTUALLY WATCH THEM AGAIN. this made me happeneine happy because i thought it justed recorded them and then destroyed them so you couldn't view them again. A pluss puslsue plus -
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Summary: Keegan puts it all together - I learned a lot
Review: I am not a newbie when it comes to hacking TiVos - three years ago I started by adding a second disk to my first TiVo, and later added network connection, TiVoWeb software and more. I also keep up with what's going on in the world of TiVo, so I figured that this book wouldn't really have a lot to offer to me - I bought it mostly out of curiosity. Boy, was I wrong... More than just a "collection of stuff you can find on the net for free", Keegan systematically explores and explains more "hacks" for TiVo than I dreamt existed. Not only are all these modifications brought together, but Keegan explains them, with pictures, screen shots and CORRECT directions (many of the documents you can find on the web have errors!). But he goes further than that, and talks about the interaction of various hacks, spends time teaching you how to write your own add-on software, and of course, includes a CD with all the stuff in one place, with correct instructions on how to make it work. Yes, I could probably have pulled all this stuff together in bits and pieces, but I probably would have found it frustrating and needlessly complex. This book is the one you should get if you are interested in getting the most out of your TiVo - unlike the other two on the market, the author actually knows and uses TiVo and wrote some of the hacks described. And yes, the book is useful for Series 2 owners. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Not as comprensive as others for Series 2
Review: I bought this book and "Hacking the Tivo, Second Edition". The two books cover a similar range of hacks and include Linux boot CDs. However there are key Series 2 hacks that are not covered in this book. For example, video extraction is a very valued hack. I want to transfer videos between my Series 2 Tivo and my PC.
"Hacking Tivo" backs away from this hack on Series Two claiming "legal reasons". Bah! "Hacking the Tivo, Second Edition" shows you how to do this and shows the likely reason why "Hacking Tivo" avoided it. It's harder! "Hacking the Tivo, Second Edition" is written by someone who loves every aspect of hacking the machine and it shows. Get this one instead.
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Summary: Fantastic!
Review: I bought this book before I bought a TiVo. I knew nothing about TiVos and this book starts off with a great introduction about all the neat things a TiVo can do. Then, it takes you step by step through how to "hack" it to make it do much more. The included CD installs all the cool software at once and saves you countless hours. There's a Linux primer for people like me, who know nothing about Linux. This is a very well thought out book and it's a tremendous help and time saver especially for people just getting started with TiVo hacking.
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Summary: Best TiVo book available
Review: I have been looking into this TiVo hacking thing for some time - browsing the Internet, reading the newsgroups, but everything I saw seemed to be a bit intimidating, and I certainly didnt want to open a $300.00 PVR and screw it up. I have been waiting for this book for 2 weeks, and finally got it last week. Having read, and not liked, 2 other books on the subject, I can tell you that this one was worth the wait. This book is not simply a collection of tips and tricks, nor is it an essay on the various things you can do if you want to go and download this or that software. It is a very easy to understand, hand-on guide that actually walks you through this stuff step by step. The CD that comes with it is a beautiful thing - something that was lacking in some of the other books. It has the hacks on it, and all you do it put it in your PC and restart, and it boots into Linux. Then you just follow along with the book. This weekend, I was able to install a second hard drive, and added 140 hours of recording time. But most importantly - I didnt ruin my TiVo. Now, I am not a complete techno-newbie, I have upgraded a video card and installed a CD burner here and there, but I am completely new to this hacking thing. This book made it less imtimidating to try, and it went a lot smoother than I thought. Even though I am just getting started, I am hooked already. If you have any interest in this hacking TiVo thing at all, get this book.
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